The Pursuit of Happiness
by PretzelofFate
Summary: Hogwarts, 1976. The marauders are entering their sixth year at the school of witchcraft & wizardry, but alongside their usual schoolwork, quidditch practice and pranks is s surprise. The greatest surprise of all. Love.
1. Prequel

The Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was always the first place students met at the beginning of each term. Newcomers would be subjected to the Sorting Hat; in order to determine which house best suited them; Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin. Meanwhile the older students would sit at their respected tables, cheering on their new house members and awaiting the feast.

The hall was decorated the same as always. There were five long tables: one for each of the four houses, and at the top of the hall, one for the teachers. Banners displaying the house colours and crest were hung above each of the four student tables. Nearly a thousand candles floated above them, providing the hall with light. The ceiling, however, matched the sky outside; dark with looming gray clouds and the occasional bright light of a distant star.

It was September 1st of 1976 and the sorting had just ended. All the new students were seated and a man with sparkling purple robes and an auburn, but slightly graying beard rose from his seat. All previous conversations ceased as he began his annual start-of-term speech.

"For those of you who don't know," he began. "I am Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Before we start this beloved feast, our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to remind you that no magic is to be used in the corridors between classes. This includes items such as Fanged Frisbees and Stink Pellets. A complete list of forbidden items can be found on his office door. Also, first years should be aware that no students are allowed to enter the Forbidden Forest at any time. A few of our older students could profit from this reminder as well." His eyes twinkled from behind his half-moon spectacles as he scanned the crowd of familiar faces.

"And one last thing," he said, his tone becoming much more serious. "As most of you are probably aware, we are in the midst of a terrible and tragic war right now. The sorting hat touched on this, but I feel the need to emphasize. There is no better time than now to connect with your classmates. Inter-house unity is what will protect, and save us from Voldemort," many in the hall, teachers included, gasped and shuddered at the use of his name, "and his followers. And on that note," Dumbledore paused. "Tuck in!"

As soon of the words were out of his mouth, large quantities of food appeared on each of the five tables; everything from roast chicken to Yorkshire pudding. The first years were amazed by the sudden appearance, most of them not yet accustomed to the use of magic, but the higher years were still silent, mulling over Dumbledore's comment. Three sixth year girls, each sitting at separate tables, had no idea how much their "inter-house" views would change within the next year. These sixth years were the girls who would steal the hearts of the young marauders.


	2. Chapter 1: Introductions

Lauren Matthews was sitting at the Hufflepuff table, barely paying attention to her surroundings. Her roommates Serena, Melanie and Amanda were all sitting near, but providing no good source of entertainment. They were all nice girls and were very friendly with Lauren, but none of them had ever delved deeper and tried to establish a true, lasting friendship.

Ever since her first year at Hogwarts, Lauren had relied on her older sister, Leslie. Leslie had guided her through the long and complicated hallways, helped her with her homework, given her the low-down on each of the professors and even welcomed Lauren into her own group of friends. In fact, the only reason Lauren had ever bothered to talk to any of the girls in her own year was because the school required her to room with them and they were the only faces she consistently saw during lessons.

It was pretty unfortunate for Lauren that this year her sister was gone; graduated and starting a new life, one separate from Hogwarts. She was sitting at the table, mindlessly eating some mashed potatoes when a voice interrupted her thoughts of self-pity.

"Hey," he said. "Can we talk?"

It was Alan Gilbert. He was a sixth year Ravenclaw prefect, chaser on their Quidditch team and her boyfriend of the last four months.

She looked up at him; those words did not seem promising. "Yeah," she said. "Here?"

He shrugged. "That's fine. I just – I don't think we should continue this."

"This?" she repeated.

"Yeah," he nodded. "I mean, I just don't think I'm ready for a serious relationship."  
"Oh."

"I hope you're not mad," he said, "but we're young, we should explore our options."

Translation: he found a new girl. "Is that all?"

He looked slightly taken aback. "Er, Yes," he said and before the word was entirely out of his mouth, Lauren had turned her back to him and was now facing a table full of girls who were all pretending they hadn't just overheard her conversation.

She heard him walk away and looked down at her plate. It was still filled with the delicious food from the feast, but she no longer had much of an appetite.

"Girls," Lily Evans said. "Your dormitories are upstairs and to your right; Boys, the same to your left. All your belongings should already be in place."  
The feast had ended and Lily was now finishing her prefect duties. The first years scampered off to their designated areas, excited to see where they would be living for the next seven years. Lily, however, plopped down on a chair at a table in the corner. Within the past five years she had spent enough time in her dorm to have it memorized.  
Her friend and fellow sixth year, Eloise Faudel, sat across from her at the table.  
"How was America, Ellie?" she asked.  
When Ellie dove right into stories of all the boys she 'hung out' with during her family's two-month overseas vacation, Lily sighed. She should have known not to count on her to care about the culture or environment of the country. It's not that Lily didn't care about her friends' love life; it's just that it was always the same thing, just different boys in different places.

Who Lily really wanted to talk to was gone. The damned war with Voldemort had caused Kristen's parents to freak out and discontinue her schooling at Hogwarts. Mrs. Kayes wanted her children close to her even though the entire wizarding world agreed that Hogwarts was the safest place to be, especially with Dumbledore as headmaster. But parents are not known for being sane when it comes to protecting their children and thanks to that, Lily was unsure of what to expect in the coming year.

She leaned back in her chair and scanned the common room. She had caught up with many acquaintances during the feast, but she looked to see if there was anyone that she missed. She stopped when her eyes reached the center of the room. There, in front of the fire, sat the [self-titled] marauders. She was on pretty good terms with Remus because, like her, he was a prefect. She felt a deep dislike, almost hatred, toward James Potter. Sirius Black was James' best friend and partner-in-crime, so he was disliked by default. The last of the group, Peter Pettigrew, was relatively nice and friendly, but he lacked some respect from Lily because he acted as a sidekick, just following the others' every move.

She zoned in on James Potter. He was good looking. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't deny that. Since about halfway through third year, James had had a weird obsession with Lily. He was constantly asking her out and trying to impress her. Lily, however, just thought he was acting stupid and immature. She considered him an egotistical git for all of the harm he caused people, no matter how humorous it could be at times.  
"Are you even listening to me?" Ellie asked.  
Lily snapped her head back around. "Sorry, Ell," she said. "I'm just tired."

Three hours later, Analeigh Adams was still awake. Almost the entire rest of the school was asleep, prepping for the first day of classes. As she lay in her bed in the Ravenclaw tower, she felt more alone than ever. Her curtains were closed so she couldn't see it, but she could sense the emptiness of the room; the huge blank area that used to be occupied by Sarah's bed.

She read about her death in _The Daily Prophet_ one morning in July. She cried for the rest of the day. By morning she had cancelled her subscription to _The Prophet_ and had cut herself off entirely from the wizarding world. After that day, summer was easy. She just convinced herself that Sarah was at home, or on vacation. It was a method that had worked for her.

Until now, that is. Now the emptiness was getting to her. Now she was surrounded by everything she had ever shared with Sarah. They had been together, practically inseparable, since first year. The image of the dormitory with only four beds was constantly replaying in her head, burning itself into her skull.  
She told herself to be strong. She had not cried since the day she found out; she could last one more night. She didn't want the other girls to wake up and see her like this. Ana did not cry in front of people, it just wasn't in her nature. Throughout six years of friendship, Sarah had never seen her shed a tear. 'Tonight will not be my weakness,' she repeatedly told herself, and eventually she fell into a fitful, but tear-free sleep.


	3. Chapter 2: Potions

Lily awoke fairly early the next morning, not wanting to be late on her first day. She headed out of her dorm intent on discussing her new schedule with Professor McGonaga___ll. She walked down to the common room, which was empty except for one person._

_"__Lily_!" James said, jumping out of his seat.  
"Potter," Lily greeted rather unpleasantly.

James ignored her tone. "I wanted to talk to you," he said.

"Okay," she replied.

"I want to be your friend, Lily. No, not your boyfriend," he said, upon seeing her expression. "Just your friend."  
"I don't have time for your games, Potter. I'm going to talk to Professor McGonagall." Lily said, turning to go.  
James grabbed her arm. "No," he said. "This isn't a game. I don't want you to hate me anymore – I just want to be your friend. I've changed, I promise."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Prove it to me. No more humiliating people just because you _think_ you're better than them, no more snide remarks, and no more hitting on me every chance you get. Do that and _then_ we'll talk."

And with that, she left the common room, intent on finding out her schedule.

Analeigh woke to the bustling noises of her roommates. She listened to them discuss their summers for a bit, but eventually decided she needed to get ready. As she rolled out of bed, their speech stopped.  
"How are you feeling?" one of them, Lena Faukner, asked.

"Uhm," Analeigh replied. "I'm okay." They didn't need to know about her sleeping trouble or the terrible pain it caused her to look at her surroundings.

Lena didn't look convinced, but they went back to previous discussion. Ana tried to tune them out, focusing on her classes as she got ready.

When she made it down to the common room a seventh year, whom she had barely ever spoken to, came up to her. "I heard about Sarah," she said. "Are you doing okay?"

"Yeah," she replied, forcing a smile. "I'm doing okay."

She quickly exited the room, heading for the Great Hall. She sat down at the very end of the Ravenclaw table, away from her housemates.

Almost immediately the head of Ravenclaw, Professor Flitwick, came up to her. "You did fairly well on all your OWLs," he squeaked. "And I have your schedule for you, but I want to talk to you first."

Analeigh sighed. "Okay."  
"I know that you and Sarah were good friends and--"  
"I'm fine," Ana interrupted. It was weird to look down at him. "Yeah, it's tough, but I'm coping."

"I just don't want you to feel alone--"  
"I don't."  
"And all the staff are available if you ever need to talk--"  
"Thank you."  
"Well here's your schedule," he said, sighing.  
"Thank you," Analeigh said again. As she watched her Professor walk away, she sunk her head into her hands. She really didn't want to be around people today.  
Throughout the rest of her breakfast no less than nine people came up to her, wondering how she was feeling and if they could do anything for her. She left the hall exasperated, practically counting the minutes until her first break period. It didn't help that on her way to class the Fat Friar approached her. Apparently Sarah's death and her misery was hot gossip, even among the dead.

When she reached the dungeon where potions was held, she slumped over to the back table and laid her head down, awaiting her classmates.

"Oh-ho!" Slughorn cried as the bell rang. "This is a N.E.W.T. level class, so let's jump right into things! We're going to be working in partners for this first month, just to get back into the swing of things. You'll be creating the Draught of Living Death, which you can find on page ten of _Advanced Potion-Making_. The pairs go as follows; Adams and Black, Evans and Gilbert, Lupin and Matthews, Potter and Snape, and last but not least, Vane and Zennor."

Sirius took the seat next to her. "So," he began, but she cut him off.

"If you say anything about Sarah, I swear to bloody Merlin I'm going to drown myself in this

cauldron."  
"Sarah who?" Sirius asked, unfazed, and for the first time that morning, Analeigh genuinely smiled.  
"You're my new favourite person here," she said, then paused. "That's not really saying much, though."

"I'm everyone's favourite," he replied, grinning. "But on a different note, how much do you actually care about this class?"

"Er," Analeigh replied. "As long as I pass my NEWT next year, I'll be happy."

"Great," Sirius replied happily. "Because I was thinking we just skip this whole death draught, or whatever Slughorn said and make our own potion."

"Our own potion?" she repeated, slightly worried. Sirius didn't exactly have a clean reputation.

"Well, maybe not our own, but something different. Like," he opened his book and began flipping through the pages. "Ah, Here we go; an Elixir to Induce Euphoria! What d'you say?"  
"Okay," Analeigh agreed after a few moments. "It's not like I don't need it..."

Things weren't going quite so agreeably in the rest of the classroom.  
"Woah, calm down." Remus exclaimed as his partner, Lauren, attacked the lacewings in front of her with the knife. "I know they're already dead but you could treat them with a little more respect," he joked.

Lauren only half-smiled.  
Remus followed her line of vision. Alan Gilbert was working with Lily Evans and there seemed to be a lot more laughing and touching involved than really necessary. "So which one is it?" he asked. "Lily or Alan?"

"Take a wild guess," she sneered, stabbing at the lacewing again.  
"Aren't you and Alan..?"

"We're on a break."  
"Oh." Remus replied.  
"It's disgraceful, really." Lauren said. "We just broke it off last night. He can't even keep his grimy hands to himself for one day." She looked over again. Currently Alan was reaching across the table, brushing Lily's hair out of her face.

"Why'd you date him if he's so _grimy_?" he asked.  
"He's not grimy," Lauren replied. "He's really sweet, actually."  
"Okay."  
"Don't do that," Lauren snapped.  
Remus looked taken aback. "Do what?" he asked.  
"You're trying to make me doubt him," she accused.  
"I'm not trying to do anything," he said.  
"He was good to me."  
"I'm sure he was."  
"I mean, yes, he cheated on me, but--"  
"He cheated on you?" Remus interrupted.  
"No," Lauren replied automatically. "Well, yes. Maybe, but--"  
"Why are you defending him if he cheated on you?"  
"I'm not positive that he did, and--"  
"That doesn't sound like a very healthy relationship."  
Lauren scowled again. "You're not helping my misery," she said, attacking the last lacewing and tossing them all into the cauldron.  
She, however, wasn't the only one who had noticed Alan's sudden attraction toward Lily. James sat at his table with Severus, practically seething with anger and jealousy. He stared into his copy of _Advanced Potion Making_, trying to concentrate on the instructions. Lily was giving him a chance; he needed to prove to her that he had changed. Cursing Alan would definitely not be a good way of showing that.  
When he looked up, he saw a stony-faced Severus stirring the cauldron. "Why are you adding a clockwise stir?" he snapped.  
Snape did not answer, but continued stirring. James didn't press the issue as the potion turned the pale pink described in the book.

While his head was up he couldn't help but glance over at Lily's table. His body became tense as he watched them. He was touching her. Why was he touching her? After five years in potions, he doubted that she really needed help cutting sopophorous beans.

As Lily turned her head, shaking her hair out of her face, she caught James' stare. He shot her what he hoped was a friendly smile and, to his surprise, she returned it. Though she was still seated with the rather flirtatious Alan, James' mood immediately lightened some.  
He looked around the room, hoping to share his excitement with someone other than Snape. He was disappointed when he saw Sirius and his partner laughing in the back of the room, their potion for some reason, was a bright shade of yellow. He turned to his left, but saw that Remus and his partner were immersed in conversation as well.  
Sighing, he sunk back into his chair. He didn't enjoy doing nothing, but Snape seemed determined not to talk to him and he didn't trust himself enough to initiate a conversation. He just knew it would end with Lily hating him.  
So when Slughorn announced "Time's up!" twenty minutes later, James was thrilled.

The professor walked around the room, examining the potions. Vane and Zennor received an approving nod. Remus looked slightly upset when Slughorn grimaced as he passed his and Lauren's cauldron. James and Snape received a smile.

A look of excitement crossed his face as he headed to Lily's table. Once he reached it, however, the excitement vanished. Lily frowned, as she was used to receiving praise from Slughorn.

Finally he reached the back of the room. "Oh-ho!" he exclaimed, looking into Sirius' and Ana's cauldron. "What have we here? Definitely not the Draught of Living Death." He bent down and took a sniff of the potion. "Euphoria, is it?" he asked.  
"Yes sir," Sirius replied.  
"This isn't what I asked for--"

"I'm sorry, sir." Analeigh interjected. "We just – I --" she faltered.  
"Oh-ho!" he exclaimed again. "No need to worry, dear. We all need a nice little pick-me-up sometimes! In fact," he sniffed it once more. "You two did fairly well."


End file.
